Ending and Beginning

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Romans 7:4-6

When a person dies, they are released from certain responsibilities. There is no longer any obligation to pay taxes for example. Men who have died have nothing to maintain in this life. In Romans 7:4-6, Paul explains to us how Christ’s death becomes our death. Through the death of Christ, the fulfillment of our obligation to the law is complete. His death is applied to us and this frees us from the law and to bear fruit for God. We are no longer held captive to what the law requires. Our new life is one that follows the Spirit of the Living God. This is what we are freed to do, keep in step with Him. We are free men who produce fruit for God, not through our own fulfilling of a law, by the new way of the Spirit.